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Eph_6:4. The duty of fathers, negative and positive.
καὶ οἱ πατέρες ] and ye fathers, so that καί quickly subjoins. Comp. Eph_6:9. Paul does not address the mothers, not because he is thinking of the training of grown-up children (so quite arbitrarily Olshausen), nor on account of an Oriental depreciation of the mothers (Rückert), in opposition to which view—even apart from passages like Pro_14:1; Pro_31:10 ff.—the whole teaching of the apostle concerning the relation of husband and wife in marriage (Eph_5:25 ff.) is decisive; but because the husband, as the head of the wife, has, even in the bringing up of children the rule, and the wives join in prosecuting the work of training ὑποτασσόμεναι τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν (Eph_5:22 ff.).
μὴ παροργίζετε ] by injustice, harshness, hastiness of temper, undue severity, and the like, whereby the children are irritated against the fathers; at Col_3:21 there is subjoined as motive ἵνα μὴ ἀθυμῶσιν .
ἐκτρέφετε ] not as at Eph_5:29, but of the bringing up, and that on its moral side. Pro_23:24; 1Ma_6:15; 1Ma_6:55; Plato, Gorg. p. 471 C; Polyb. vi. 6. 2. See Wyttenbach, ad Plut. de educ. p. 66; Lennep. ad Phalar, p. 350b.
ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσίᾳ κυρίου ] ἐν denotes the regulative element, in which the training is to take place. Comp. Polyb. i. 65. 7: τῶν ἐν παιδείαις κ . νόμοις κ . πολιτικοῖς ἔθεσιν ἐκτεθραμμένων . Hence: in the Lord’s training and correction. παιδεία is the general term, the training of children as a whole, and νουθεσία is the special one, the reproof aiming at amendment, whether this admonition take place by means of words ( νουθετικοὶ λόγοι , Xen. Mem. i. 2. 21) or of actual punishments ( οἱ μὲν ῥάβδοι νουθετοῦσι κ . τ . λ ., Plut. Quaest. Rom. p. 283). See Gellius, vi. 4; Kypke, Obss. ad 1 Thess. v. 14. With regard to the form, in place of which the better Greek has νουθέτησις , see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 512. κυρίου means neither to the Lord (Luther), nor according to the doctrine of Christ (Erasmus, Beza, Vatablus, Menochius, Estius, Zachariae, Koppe, Morus, Rosenmüller, Bisping, and others, including Holzhausen, who, however, takes κυρ . of God), nor worthily of the Lord (Matthies), or the like; but it is the genitive subjecti, so that the Lord Himself is conceived as exercising the training and reproof, in so far, namely, as Christ by His Spirit impels and governs the fathers therein. Comp. Soph. Electr. 335: ἅπαντα γάρ σοι ταʼ μὰ νουθετήματα κείνης διδακτὰ , κοὐδὲν ἐκ σαυτῆς λέγεις . Rückert is unable to come to a decision, and doubts whether Paul himself had a distinct idea before his mind.